


we'll get together then, dad

by doingthemost



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Gen, Johnny's trying, Queer Character, Queer Feelings, Queer Themes, queer everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29328354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doingthemost/pseuds/doingthemost
Summary: "Alexis? Honey?" He tries a laugh. "You're making me worry.""Sorry! Sorry." She laughs, too, and it sounds closer to the Alexis who learned to love him in Schitt's Creek. "I'm just... I don't know how to say this, I guess? But." He hears her take a deep breath before the rest of her words come out in a rush."I'm queer, Dad. And I wanted you to know."When Alexis comes out to Johnny, he does some reflecting about his two children.
Relationships: Alexis Rose & Johnny Rose, David Rose & Johnny Rose
Comments: 62
Kudos: 69





	we'll get together then, dad

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by and written for my Rosebuddies. 🌈 title from "Cat's In The Cradle." 
> 
> Rated T because there are some mentions/allusions of homophobia that Johnny witnessed or has heard about on the news, but there is none in the interactions between the characters. 
> 
> Writing this was a very sudden whim, and I may or may not have based Johnny on one of my parents. #YayCatharsis? I'd love to hear from you if you read this.

"Dad?" 

He clutches the phone in his hand, his eyebrows raised and eyes wide. Her voice is soft and tentative, tinged with only the barest hint of her usual cadence, closer to the little girl he only vaguely remembers. 

"Yeah, honey? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah." He thinks he can hear her smiling in New York, and he pictures it in his mind's eye. "I just... wanted to talk."

"Well, that's great." He sets his paper aside, and gives his daughter his undivided attention. "What's going on, Alexis?"

She doesn't say anything, not at first, and the longer the silence stretches, the more dread he feels in his gut. 

"Alexis? Honey?" He tries a laugh. "You're making me worry."

"Sorry! Sorry." She laughs, too, and it sounds closer to the Alexis who learned to love him in Schitt's Creek. "I'm just... I don't know how to say this, I guess? But." He hears her take a deep breath before the rest of her words come out in a rush. 

"I'm queer, Dad. And I wanted you to know. Before I told Mom, I mean. Not because I think she's going to be weird, and David already knows, but –"

He can barely hear anything else she's saying; his mind's too busy flashing back to when David had been younger and so different from Johnny, so unlike the other boys in school. David had been his mother's son from the very beginning, Johnny an outsider looking in. 

"Dad? Dad? You're, like. You're still there, right?"

"Yeah – sorry, sorry!" He knows how this sounds, conscious of how he's coming off in a way he hadn't been when David had been in college. "Alexis, I – wow. I mean, that's great! Really great." 

Now he's overcompensating, and they both know it. 

"Dad." Alexis' voice turns a little more hesitant, and he thinks of the little girl he barely knew. "It's, um. I mean, it's okay if you need some time to think about it?" 

"No, _no_." This much he's certain of. "Alexis, that's – I really mean it. I'm glad that you told me."

"Really?" She's a little more pointed now, but he's happy to hear it. It feels like she's resettling, both of them recalibrating their relationship. "Because you got kind of..." He smiles as he tries to picture the gesture she must be making. "I wasn't sure if you were, like, mad or confused or whatever?"

"No," Johnny says again. "No, honey. I'm none of those things. Surprised, maybe? Since things with Ted had seemed so – You seemed to only be interested in –"

" _Dad_."

"Sorry! Um. I just mean – I'm surprised, but very... I mean, it must be really something, if you're telling me." 

"Yeah." He can almost hear her rolling her eyes, but he smiles when she laughs. "It really is _something_."

He thinks of sleepless nights after David's coming out, worrying for his brash, unapologetic son with his eyebrows and Moira's flair for the dramatic. He'd felt the way that _queer_ could be used to cut, even if he'd never been on its receiving end, and fear had gripped his heart when he'd first heard that word come out of his son's mouth.

 _Pansexual_ had felt easier. Safer, maybe. David had assured him that both words were fine, sometime after he'd grown up without his parents' awareness, but Johnny couldn't bring himself to use the word _queer_. It felt wrong, inappropriate and horrible, and Johnny had banished the word to the lockbox of things never to think or say.

"So you're – queer," he says to his daughter, trying it out. 

The word's heavy on his tongue, and he thinks of accidentally-overheard conversations in Schitt's Creek: David talking about how the queer community was a place for _everyone_ , and Johnny on the other side of a shared motel door. He wishes they were face to face for this conversation. He misses his children.

"Yeah. I guess I always have been."

"That's how it works," he says, but he starts second-guessing it as soon as the words leave his mouth. "Right?"

"David says it's very, um. Fluid? So it can be, but sometimes not really? But, I mean. As far as me being queer is concerned? Looking back on things, yeah. I always have been."

"And now you know," he says. He's teary, all of a sudden. "About that part of you, I mean." 

"Yeah." It's just one word, but he can tell she's crying, too. "I do now." 

He thinks of when he'd worried for David, choosing an apartment in such an openly gay – openly _queer_ , he corrects himself – neighbourhood. _Everyone would know that you're.... well, you know,_ he'd said at the time, and David had screwed his face up, gestured to his entire being, and said, _Dad, everyone already knows._

He thinks of when the news would talk about hate crimes and bashings, and he'd pour a glass of whiskey to numb his terror.

He thinks of watching his son help the love of his life discover himself for the first time in his life.

He thinks of his daughter, alone in New York – or maybe not _alone_ , if there's a reason why she's suddenly discovered this part of herself. Alexis has grown up, too; he isn't sure if she'll ever stop amazing him.

"Maybe I should come visit you," Johnny says. "Your mother's filming a lot, and I could check on things with RMG." He covers the phone with his free hand as he sniffles. "We could spend some time together."

"Sure, Dad. I'd really like that."

Maybe he should start Googling queer bars, or museums, or books. It's research he should've done with David, and he knows he'll spend the rest of his life atoning for his parental sins. But as long as his kids will let him, he's glad to make up for last time.

"Thank you for telling me, Alexis. I love you, honey. No matter what. You know that, right?"

"I do, Dad. And I love you, too."

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at alamborghini!


End file.
